Sunday, September 30, 2012

It's almost like COASTers woke up in a parallel universe the last few months.

After five years of our City leaders dreaming, planning, prevaricating, deficit spending and taxing, the Enquirer has just in the past 60 days repeatedly come out in full-throttled opposition to the foolish Streetcar project. Until then they have been silent about the biggest public capital project in this City since the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

One day before losing the "conscience of the community" behind a firewall, the gray lady (the paper, not Mrs. Buchanan) has this bold clarion call to stop the insanity.

The highlights:

It’s time to pull the plug on the streetcar....

But it’s become clear there’s no sound plan to finance it. It’s a
patchwork being stitched together a piece at a time. The pieces are now
starting to come from other obligations, areas that are more urgent
and would benefit more people....

The sale of the airport will bring $37 million to the city. That
money is a windfall to a city that is falling behind on street and
bridge maintenance and has other pressing capital needs, such as parks
and police stations....

Those kinds of growth projections might seem optimistic in the best of times. These days, it’s almost cavalier....

We need to get off this train to nowhere.

It's almost like these words might have come off of COAST's keyboard.

Music to our frugal ears.

We might remind Enquirer readers and Cincinnati taxpayers that Mayor Mallory and his merry band of thieves have already spent more than $20 million to date on planning the streetcar, buying the bus barn, and sundry and assorted bells and whistles before the actual streetcars and tracks are purchased. $20 million already down the pisser.

[As if COAST did not need yet another reason to oppose Cincinnati's Issue 4, the proposal to extend Council terms between elections (we call those accountability sessions).]

Democrat Groups and the Obama Turnout Machine are planning to vote early and lock in their votes. What do the Democrats know about early voting that Conservatives have forgotten?

Remove the risk of inclement weather or unforeseen circumstances. Request an absentee ballot or vote early in person and make sure your vote counts!

Early and absentee voting can be the key to this year’s
election.

And, perhaps best of all, once your ballot is turned in, THE PHONE CALLS STOP, THE MAILERS STOP, THE KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR STOP!

Every night, the parties and leading issue groups get updates from the local boards of election on who has turned in their ballot. Once your ballot is in, these groups know not to waste their time and money calling you because you've already voted!

Make your vote count, stop the phone calls and mailers: VOTE EARLY!

Early Voting can be done by mail or in person at your County's Board of Election Headquarters. Below are links to your local board of election and the
forms necessary to check your registration, register, vote early, request an
absentee ballot and update your registration. This year is a redistricting year, so use the links below to verify which Congressional and State Rep. District you're in.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Understand what is now happening monthly in fiscal policy and monetary policy in this nation:

1) The Federal government, engaging in profligate spending for which there is no political courage (Republican or Democrat) to restrain, is plunging us further and further in to debt.

2) One of the natural consequences of that debt is rising interest rates on both the debt, thus forcing rising interest rates for market-based debt for home owners, businesses and others.

3) In what would be a fiscal calamity, that rise in interest rates would cause the debt to rise even more, as is addressed in this COAST blog entry, as eventually those higher rates would be paid on all U.S. debt.

4) In order to avoid that rise in interest rates, using the law of supply and demand, The Fed simply "prints" more money each month to buy the debt that the U.S. government is issuing. But, in reality, they don't actually need to print money, as the transactions are all electronic fund transfers.

5) Because there is an excess demand for government bonds (beyond what the market would provide), there is a suppression of the interest rate.

6) But that suppression comes with three critical costs to the nation:

A) First, by expanding the supply of money, money becomes worth less compared to products. As money is worth comparatively less, prices invariably rise (i.e., inflation). That rise in prices eventually spirals out of control, an effect known s hyper-inflation. As history has shown, hyper-inflation is extraordinarily difficult to control.

B) In a descent into the unknown, perhaps even worse is that The Fed then loses one of its few tools to deal with crisis. If the economy takes another dive, there are no remaining rabbits to pull out of the Fed's hat to ameliorate that.

C) Finally, as with all interference with the marketplace by government manipulation, it temporarily skews the natural market forces, and allows bad behaviors to continue as if they did not matter. This, in turn, encourages the continuation of the bad behavior. In application, the temporary shielding of Congress and the President from the consequences of unrestrained deficit spending (i.e., higher interest rates), simply encourages more deficit spending.

What we learned from the multiple fiscal crises arising from and after the summer and fall of 2008 is that policies that don't make sense, don't make sense, and it does not take a Wharton Business School MBA to figure that out. (Making home loans to people who can't possibly pay them back as a broad national policy is an extraordinarily bad idea.)

Similarly, printing money to pay for our uncontrolled and continued over-spending and borrowing habit solves nothing and contains the seeds of economic destruction of a once proud, powerful and wealthy nation.

In the end, as with the housing crisis that begat the banking crisis, that begat the sovereign debt crisis that continues to beguile the world, when the avalanche starts it is difficult to stop.

And we kid ourselves in thinking that next time it might just be merely "difficult" to stop. It may be impossible, and the plunge into economic oblivion may well be a long, painful and irreversible fall.

The casual way our nation presently is engaging in risky fiscal, monetary and economic policy is stunning, and ignores the lessons of history that unthinkable calamity may well befall us, substantially exacerbated by these reckless policies.

The downside, the real potential downside, of the deleterious and risky behaviors in which our elected and unelected leaders engage are not considered real by policy-makers. And they should be.

Party on, U.S.A., after we pass out worshiping the porcelain goddess, the hangover is going to be a long and painful one.

John Cranley, Maggie Buchanan and Gregg Fusaro have come to the rescue just before Cincinnati takes the plunge into fiscal oblivion.

Candidly, our leadership and work exposing the boondoggle financing that daily pushes the City further towards insolvency, hasn't accomplished a whole lot tangible -- except maybe encouraging the Governor to cut that $52 million in state funding. Otherwise, Mallory & Co. were methodically, if ineptly, marching forward on the biggest boondoggle since Paul Brown stadium.

But our new allies, mainstream in the decision-making, power-brokering of Cincinnati, finally have come forward -- and forcefully and consistently -- as Mayor Mallory and his merry band of thieves head towards the point of no return on the Streetcar.

Here's yesterday's Enquirer editorial. After five years of radio silence on the streetcar debate (does anyone but us think that was bizarre?), this is their second clearly anti-streetcar ed in two months. We are pleased and surprised.

John Cranley appears to be smartly staking out a firm anti-streetcar position for his 2013 Mayoral campaign. That's smart now; and it will look even smarter as he hangs the noose of streetcar foibles and catastrophes around the neck of Roxanne Qualls, his likely opponent in that contest, throughout the election year.

And Gregg Fusaro, a successful real estate broker and investor, has stepped forward and pointed out that a committed and well-considered rubber-tired trolley system delivers the same benefits at less than 10% of the cost of the Streetcar, something that should have been obvious to City planners.

We want to thank Council members Smitherman and Winburn for continuing to lead the fight against this devastatingly bad project. Their bully-pulpit leadership is deeply appreciated. Even P.G. Sittenfeld, who clearly has his eyes on higher office, has finally come out cleanly as anti-streetcar.

Finally, now that he has finished law school and taken the Bar Exam, COASTer Brian Shrive this week stepped to the plate and took a few swings of his own against the Streetcar, and we thank him for his leadership.

So, we like how the debate is shaping up, even if Mallory and Dohoney are driving under the influence of intoxicating debt. The truth is coming out. And the debate is now being driven by folks in addition to COASTers. We are pleased that it is so.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Monday Morning, the next shoe will drop in the never ending
scandal of Mallory's Trolley Folly.
The latest "plan" requires the proceeds of the Blue Ash
Airport sale to be used to fund the cost of relocating utility lines and
manholes along the Streetcar Route.

Mayor Mallory was elected, in part, because he promised the
proceeds of the Blue Ash Airport sale would be used to help Cincinnati's
neighborhoods. Specifically, he promised the money to community councils to be
used to improve the quality of life in each neighborhood.

Now, he is rescinding that promise (just like they rescinded
the airport deal to avoid promises made to the Federal government to use those
funds for airport related expenses). Instead of funding neighborhoods, Millions
more will be spent on this boondoggle.

Mallory and his Streetcar Cronies are spinning this latest
deal as a short term problem and that Duke will eventually refund the city for
these costs. Don't believe them! They have lied and lied and lied at
every step of the way toward this fiasco, and they continue to lie.

First, the City promised the Federal Government that the
Blue Ash Airport money would be used to fund airports; then Mallory promised
voters it would be used to fund neighborhoods; now, after breaking the promise
to the feds, Mallory is going to break his promise to the voters. Do you
really think he is done lying about the money??

Even if you support the streetcar, City Council should not
be raiding the neighborhood funds to pay for it. They have already
committed over $110 Million to this streetcar (to be paid, with interest over
30 years!). This does not even begin to consider the costs to operate the
Streetcar - Millions more per year! Don't let them take money that was
promised to neighborhoods on top of everything else.

City Council's Budget and Finance Committee will be hearing
and voting on this issue Monday morning at 10:30 AM in City Council Chambers.

This Council's unwillingness to face reality
is exactly why you should vote NO on Issue 4 in November. They simply cannot
be trusted with longer terms.

Please come to City Hall at 10:15 AM Monday, fill out a
speaker's card and speak against this horrible idea.

Before then you can call and email Council and tell them to
Stop the Streetcar Shenanigans!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

After four long years of litigation, this week COAST prevailed in front of federal district court Judge Mike Barrett with his finding that the City's policy of allowing pro-tax citizen groups to use interior areas of City Hall, but discriminating against anti-tax groups COAST and WeDemandAVote.Com in preventing similar access, was unconstitutional. During the litigation, the City amended its policy purporting to prevent any such illegal events in the future (we will see).

In late February of 2008, Cincinnatians Active to Support Education (CASE), the pro-levy political action committee, held a rally and press conference on the interior front stairs of Cincinnati City Hall asking voters to vote in favor of the school levy on the ballot in March of that year. This was the third such rally and media event in that same area since 2000.

In response, COAST and WeDemandAVote.Com twice asked the City Manager for permission to use that same area for a rally and press conference. COAST was denied permission.

Thus, Cincinnati's democrats continued their illegal and unconstitutional tradition of using taxpayer resources to fuel their political machine. Indeed, they have repeatedly thumbed their noses at Ohio law and the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment "equal access" principles in so abusing the public property to which they have been entrusted. Among these laws the City was violating was a COAST-backed Charter Amendment from 2002 that specifically outlawed the use of City monies to aid political campaigns.

In response to the illegal practices of the City, COAST's attorneys swung into action, and sued in July of 2008. However, the City Administration and elected officials had no intention of relinquishing this power to abuse the public property and the public fisc. Federal Judge Barrett promptly issued a Temporary Restraining Order and then Preliminary Injunction against the unconstitutional policies and practices of the City.

But the City, which can't fund its police and firefighters, appears to have unlimited resources to defend its illegal policies, rather than just change them. It appealed the preliminary injunction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court -- and lost in October of 2010.

That crisp rejection of the City's policy still did not dissuade them, and over the ensuing two years, COAST's attorneys fought five separate motions to dismiss from the CIty, conducted some 16 depositions of City officials, and argued procedural motion after procedural motion before Judge Barrett.

Finally, this week, Judge Barrett concluded that litigation with a finding that the City's policies were in fact unconstitutional. The City, two months earlier, facing an injunction against its illegal conduct, finally changed its policy. It appears unlikely that CASE will have any more rallies inside City Hall.

COAST thanks its counsel, Christopher Finney and Curt Hartman, for their quality lawyering and persistence in forcing the City to change its abusive conduct, once and for all.

Friday, September 14, 2012

On Thursday, September 27th, Dr. C.L. Gray, a nationally recognized
writer, speaker and board certified physician, will be hosting a healthcare
forum in Cincinnati area to help educate Ohio voters on two of the most
important issues facing the election – healthcare and how it relates to the
economy.

Understand the debate and what is at stake

As a practicing physician who founded Physicians for Reform, Dr. Gray
has developed a powerful, compelling presentation that goes beyond facts and
figures and personalizes healthcare policy by looking at the origin of
divergent worldviews that battle for the soul of our nation. Researching over
2,500 years of healthcare philosophies, he charts a chilling course of how the
healthcare pendulum has swung from caring for the wellbeing of patients to
looking out for the financial interests of the state. Dr. Gray masterfully ties
this to our current healthcare law and economic situation, and explains what
this means for patients.

Details about the Forum

Healthcare: The Endgame

Time/Date: Thursday, September 27th from 7:00 PM to
9:00 PM

Location: Wingate by Wyndham & Meridian Conference
Center, 7500 Tylers Place Boulevard, West Chester, Ohio 45069. Presentation
will be in the Meridian I Room.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Why Healthcare? Why Now?

In 2011, the Healthcare Freedom Amendment (Issue 3) passed in all 88
counties, proving that healthcare freedom is an important, winning issue in
Ohio. We must use this issue to our advantage in the upcoming election to help
voters understand what’s at stake, so they can make an informed decision in
November.

Please join Dr. Gray for this informative, eye-opening
presentation

Physicians for Reform along with Tea Party Patriots and 60 Plus
Association are hosting these forums throughout the state. They are free and
open to the public. If you have any questions, please contact Amy Brighton honoring1776@gmail.com.

Physicians for Reform is a 501(c)4 non-profit, non-partisan, advocacy
group designed to organize physicians, patients, and the business community in
an effort to shape the nation’s healthcare debate. It seeks to keep the
patient’s welfare the central focus of medicine, not the fluctuating interests
of government. The organization was founded in December of 2006 by Dr. Gray. www.physiciansforreform.org

------------------------------------

A little more about Dr Gray:

Dr. C. L. Gray is a nationally known writer, speaker, and
board certified physician practicing hospital-based medicine in western North
Carolina. In 2006 he founded Physicians for
Reform, a non-profit
organization dedicated to preserving patient-centered healthcare. Gray’s
current book, The Battle for America’s Soul, resulted from a decade
spent in research and analysis of the history and philosophy of medical ethics.
This book presents findings that link America’s present cultural divide with
the practice of Post-Hippocratic medicine.

Dr. Gray wrote multiple national op-eds including two pieces
specifically requested by FOX News covering President Obama’s 2010 State of the
Union Address and a the high profile 2010 Healthcare Summit. With some 400,000
readers, Gray’s piece Why Doctors are Leaving Medicare became one of the
most highly read opinion pieces FOX posted. Other op-ed’s appeared in The
Washington Times, Investors Business Daily, The Washington
Examiner, The Hill, and others. Gray has two scientific publications
to his credit and has authored two books.

Gray’s research, writing, and unique voice as a practicing
physician moved him onto the national stage as a widely sought public speaker.
He spoke to tens-of-thousands of people at town-halls in Texas, Georgia, and
North Carolina during the summer of 2009. Invited to speak on the West Lawn of
the U.S Capitol on September 12, 2009, Gray addressed the estimated 1.2+
million people at the Tea Party’s March on Washington.

Gray’s work now takes him to Washington and state capitals
where Physicians for Reform has been tapped to help craft solutions to
save Medicare and Medicaid from financial collapse. In 2010, physicians
underwent the longest interruption of payments in Medicare’s history. In
January of 2013 physicians will face a 30+ percent cut in Medicare
reimbursement; this places seniors at risk as doctors abandon Medicare in
record numbers. Nationwide nearly every state faced massive budget shortfalls
when the federal Medicaid funding of the stimulus bill ran out. These dilemmas
can only be solved through patient-centered, fiscally responsible reforms such
as outlined by Physicians for Reform.

Monday, September 10, 2012

This morning COAST legal counsel Chris Finney discussed Duke's Proposed Streetcar Rate Increase with Brian Thomas on 55KRC. As he discussed with WLW two weeks ago, this proposed rate increase is nothing more than a tax increase for all Cincinnatians.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Representative Paul
Ryan and Lt. Col Dr. Brad Wenstrup invite all COASTers to the following rally Wednesday. Come and help swell the crowd:

Victory
Rally with Rep. Paul Ryan,

Dr. Brad Wenstrup

and
the entire Republican Team!

Wednesday,
September 12, 2012

Doors
Open 4:00 PM | Event Begins 6:00 PM

Clermont
County Fairgrounds

1000
Locust Street

Owensville,
Ohio 45160

All
attendees will go through airport-like security and should bring as few
personal items as possible. No bags,
sharp objects, umbrellas, liquids, or signs will be allowed in the venue.
Cameras are permitted.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Cincinnati has the upcoming magic casino
revenue…..California was banking on the magic Facebook stock money which has
suddenly blown up in their face leaving a gaping hole.

Cincinnati has been using accounting & budgeting tricks
for years to "balance" their budget………California has too, for at
least a decade just like Cincinnati.

Cincinnati has its own pension system that is about to
explode…….California does too and it's bigger, badder and will probably implode
first!

Cincinnati is starting its own boondoggle super expensive
trolley to nowhere……California is too, except theirs is a exceedingly expensive
billion $ high speed train that is literally starting in nowhere.

Cincinnati passed an ordinance to prevent fracking in their
city (not that there is vast resources under Vine St.)……California has been
stopping drilling too, except they potentially have tons of oil/gas reserves

Cincinnati is governed by liberal Democrats…..California
produces some of the most liberal democratic politicians ever known to man

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

For many democrats, they felt they could support abortion rights, but oppose public funding of abortions and somehow claim the "moderate"mantle. Well, the new Democrat platform adopted today abandons that pretense, advancing the notion that the rest of us (who maybe either oppose abortion or who don't want to pay for it) have an obligation to fund the premature ending of the life of a poor person's baby.

Monday, September 3, 2012

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples' money.

There is considerable dispute (see here and here) as to whether former British Prime Minister, the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher ever uttered this wise and memorable line. But wherever it derived, it is certainly insightful and applicable to our mess today.

Yet the fiscal problem with our modern socialist nation is not that we might eventually run out of other peoples' money, but that we already have and, indeed, we did long ago.

This week, whilst democrats celebrate the re-nomination of their Messiah of the unrestrained growth of government spending, the national debt will surpass $16 trillion. Interest on that debt last year, when the debt was lower, was $230 billion, or 6% of our national budget. It has grown $5.4 trillion just since President Obama took office.

First, what that means today. The interest on the debt represents our penance for over-spending in the past. All the Great Society programs and our endless foreign intervention have yielded the interest payments that we will have forever. Assuming the cost of upgrading the Brent Spence Bridge is $3 billion, the interest payments alone would finance 77 such projects annually. Conversely, if we had not engaged in our orgy of post WWII over-spending, we could afford 77 more such projects year after year after year. This is the impact right now.

And although it's more dire than "bad enough" today, it's getting worse by the hour, as we all see with the national debt clock ticking away. By the hour, while we are already sunk knee-deep in debt, we are spending more than we are taking in, to the tune of $1.33 trillion this year alone.

But here's the really frightening thing: We are actually yielding a tremendous dividend from the recession: low interest rates. Presently hovering under 3%, they are just half what they were a decade ago. Thus, when the economy gets revved up again (if it gets revved up again) or when lenders tire of the risk associated with irresponsible spending policies, rates may rise to the rate they were in just 2000: 6.6% -- or heaven forbid, much higher.

The Congressional Budget Office projects interest on the debt will rise to $778 billion by 2020. A spike in interest rates, which many predict, would exacerbate that number to more than $1 trillion per year.

And, of course, because we refuse to pay our way out of this mess, that $1 trillion of interest is, guess what, just more debt!

So, more than just a political line, that debt and the interest payments it yields annually, is passed on to our children as the legacy of excess we have "enjoyed."

So, party on Democrats, and many over-spending Republicans. The bill has already come due.

The years of endless profligate spending that marked the beginning, middle and end of the Bush presidency was the road to perdition for this nation, and the GOP. His lack of leadership on fiscal issues was the source of the financial crisis that has caused untold misery for tens of millions of Americans and others throughout the world, and was the reason for the devastating election results across the board in 2008.

The GOP only began its healthy re-building once Bush was safely out of office, and we could begin to forget the spending nightmare that was the Bush presidency. This, of course, spawned the ascent of the Tea Party, and clearing of the weeds of less-than-committed Republican Congressmen and Senators who simply stayed around far too long.

COAST encourages Republicans and conservatives to have long, firm memories of the disastrous Bush presidency, and to remain vigilant against the return of those weak-kneed fiscal policies that brought America and the GOP to its knees.

Each person who was a part of this disgraceful chapter in American history should be remembered for their role in it.

The coming 68 days are going to be very busy, offering a rich set of opportunities to change the direction of our City, State and nation for the better.

COAST and COASTers are hip-deep in many of the momentous battles underway and intend to help educate and persuade voters about their role in this important election and other issues that are developing.

COAST and COASTers are helping with the election of Mitt Romney to President, Paul Ryan as Vice President.

We pushing the election of Josh Mandel to the U.S. Senate, and hopefully, the takeover by the GOP of the Senate, wresting control from Harry Reid.

COAST is going to initiate a legal battle to stop the use of monies form the sale of the Blue Ash Airport property by the City of Cincinnati for the Cincinnati Streetcar project.

COAST is going to launch a major campaign to stop a massive Duke Energy rate increase on City ratepayers to fund the Cincinnati Streetcar project.

We will educate voters on the bizarre and unconstitutional construction of State Issue 2 that creates a frightening scheme for Congressional and State House redistricting in Ohio.

We are going to expose the Cincinnati initiative to extend Council terms as merely a shield to raise taxes, for as soon as the initiative passes, the new-elected Council will have no fear of the electorate.

So, stay tuned for an exciting 68 days, and be prepared to respond to COAST's calls to action!

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Mission & Purpose

COAST exists to limit the rate of taxes and spending at the federal, state, and local level to within the rate of inflation and to stop the abuse of power by government officials.

COAST advances this cause by consistent and principled adherence to limited government and lower taxes in fighting legislation and ballot initiatives that increase taxes and spending beyond the rate of inflation, and by supporting candidates for public office who advance these principles.